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Price Chopper Puts Nanotechnology on Cereal Boxes

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- Price Chopper here has unveiled a new cereal box containing information nanotechnology geared to children. The official rollout occurred Sept. 27 at a NanoCareer Day at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) in Albany, N.Y., before 300 middle and high school students from 11 schools in the region.

October 8, 2007, 08:00 pm

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- Price Chopper here has unveiled a new cereal box containing information nanotechnology geared to children. The official rollout occurred Sept. 27 at a NanoCareer Day at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) in Albany, N.Y., before 300 middle and high school students from 11 schools in the region.

CNSE helped develop the kid-friendly information on the growing impact of nanotechnology on society for the back of Price Chopper's private label Koo-Kies and Peanut Butter Cocoa Spheres 12.25-ounce cereal boxes.

Noted Price Chopper v.p. of public relations and consumer services Mona Golub in a statement, "Given all of the technological distraction that cyberspace makes accessible to kids, it is truly rewarding to be able to impart relevant educational messages to them, via our Price Chopper brand cereal boxes, during those less distracting moments of their everyday lives."

The cereals are currently on store shelves in all 116 Price Chopper stores in New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. The message on the back of the boxes talks about what nanotechnology is, why it's important, how someone would prepare to study it, and where to learn more.

Price Chopper community & public relations manager Barbara L. Page told Progressive Grocer that the initiative would hopefully be ongoing, with new kid-friendly private label items and additional educational information being added if possible.

According to the University of Albany, which approached Price Chopper with the idea, it's the first time in the United States that nanotechnology data has ever appeared on a cereal box.

Additionally, Price Chopper has also made a major donation of $25,000 to the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford. The center is in the midst of a $150 million campaign to construct, equip, and sustain a new 140,000-square-foot facility, with completion expected in early to mid-2008.

"Price Chopper and the center will continue to work together to form store-based and/or community-based publicity and marketing plans to raise additional monies once the facility is opened," said Page.

In other Price Chopper news, the retailer has selected Cary, N.C.-based Supply Chain Intelligence's Outbound Shipment Intelligence to replace its existing routing and scheduling system. Price Chopper chose Supply Chain Intelligence's solution after an extensive review process, because of such factors as its ease of use, flexibility to address different processes at each distribution center, and ability to reduce overall transportation costs.

"We were skeptical that there was a system that could produce justifiable savings over our existing solution, especially due to our recent efforts to fine-tune our solution," Supply Chain Intelligence has proven the savings with their grocery expertise," said Price Chopper v.p. of transportation W. Thomas Bird. "Supply Chain Intelligence worked diligently to understand our business, and in the end, showed how their solution will save tremendous dollars."

"The grocery industry has long been in search of ways to reduce costs to combat ever-shrinking margins," says Supply Chain Intelligence v.p., logistics systems Karl Hatt. "Our solution provides grocers a means to reduce the cost of transportation without changing their process, where they might believe none exists with their current routing system. Outbound Shipment Intelligence is proven to generate savings over other existing routing systems."

Outbound Shipment Intelligence will be deployed on a central server and accessed by the users at the distribution centers, employing standard Web browsers.